The Ferrari Challenge season continues its North American schedule with its fifth stop of 2023 at the Sonoma Raceway. The Sonoma circuit has been a mainstay of the calendar with the championship visiting for the third consecutive year. But this year offers a new wrinkle for the drivers as they will have to tackle different layout than what they’ve come to expect. In the 2023 edition, drivers will use the 7a option at the top of the circuit before following the original layout of the circuit and eschewing the chicane at Turn 9.
This new challenge will offer a new variable for drivers and their Ferrari 488 Challenge Evos as they work to further develop their championship ambitions across the four categories of the championship.
Trofeo Pirelli
Matt Kurzejuewski (Ferrari of Beverly Hills) has assumed control of the category, leading over Roberto Perrina (Ferrari of Seattle) by 22 points as the season rounds into the second half. The chaos of Montreal struck, as it always seems to do, but in this case it bit Kurzejewski’s nearest challenger the hardest as Jason McCarthy (Wide World Ferrari) could not manage to secure a podium in either of the two races, and thus saw his gap expand to now twenty-six points from what was previously only 15.
The big winner in Montreal was undoubtedly Roberto Perrina, however, who dodged trouble and stood on the second step of the podium in both races, leapfrogging himself into second in the standings. In the AM category, it was a bit more business as usual, as Justin Rothberg (Ferrari of Palm Beach) took the win in race 1, and Tony Davis (Continental Autosport) secured the win in race 2. Rothberg’s pole position and fastest lap served to increase the gap between them slightly, now at four points, but nevertheless the two are neck and neck. Marc Muzzo (Ferrari of Ontario) however, saw his challenge take a bit of a step back as two fourth-place finishes were the best he could muster on home-turf. He is now twenty-three points back and will need a strong weekend at Sonoma to re-enter the fray at the very top.
Coppa Shell
Cameron Root (Ron Tonkin Gran Turismo) continues his run at the top of the Coppa Shell standings, but saw his lead eroded by the strong performance of Sureel Choksi (Ferrari of Denver). While Root stood on the podium in Race 1, it was Choksi on the top step in race two while Root failed to score any points. Root’s lead is still comfortable at 14 points, but one more strong result from Choksi, or a missed opportunity from Root will make this a very compelling contest. And we cannot forget David Voronin (Foreign Cars Italia) who currently sits in third, three points behind Choksi.
Voronin’s Montreal adventure certainly fit the mold, with a win in race 1, but no points scored in race 2. In the Am category, Lisa Clark (Ferrari of Beverly Hills) found her mojo again as she stood on the top step of the podium in race 1 at Montreal and secured a fifth-place finish in race 2. That allowed her to grow her lead over Dan Cornish (Ferrari of Austin) who sits twelve points back, but also took his turn at the top of the podium in race 2. Lance Cawley (Ferrari of Atlanta) currently occupies the third spot, but will need to regain some of his early-season success to sustain that position as he only holds a twelve point advantage over the rest of the Coppa Shell AM field at the moment.
Schedule
Following testing sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, the championship will begin their official practice sessions on Friday at 8:00am (all times in Pacific Time). These sessions will trade time with sessions dedicated to the Club Challenge and Club Competizioni GT programs. Cars will be on track through 7:00pm. Qualifying and racing sessions will begin on Saturday with qualifying starting at 10:10am and races at 2:10pm. All qualifying and racing sessions will be streamed on live.ferrari.com. Sunday’s schedule will similarly begin at 10:10am with qualifying sessions while the races will begin at 1:40pm. All sessions on Sunday will also be streamed live on live.ferrari.com.